CARPE VERBUM

Happy Easter and welcome to Carpe Verbum! If you would like more information on how to do Lectio Divina and properly use this resource for your prayer, you can click here or check out the tabs above. We're excited to journey with you as we together learn what it means to seize the Word​ each day!

Step #1: Lectio / Read

Peter proceeded to speak and said:“You know what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptismthat John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazarethwith the Holy Spirit and power.He went about doing goodand healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.We are witnesses of all that he didboth in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,not to all the people, but to us,the witnesses chosen by God in advance,who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.He commissioned us to preach to the peopleand testify that he is the one appointed by Godas judge of the living and the dead.To him all the prophets bear witness,that everyone who believes in himwill receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Acts 10:34a, 37-43

Step #2: Meditatio / Meditate

Today is the day! Alleluia, the Lord has risen indeed! What a beautiful wonderful day today is - it is the day of our Salvation! After years of public ministry, the Jewish leaders had Jesus captured, tried, and ultimately put to death. After three long days in the tomb, the Apostles were told today that, when the women went to the tomb early in the morning the stone was rolled back and Jesus was no longer there. He has risen indeed!

Today's reading from Acts of the Apostles is part of a sermon St. Peter gave in the Acts of the Apostles. After Jesus' Resurrection, the Apostles are visited by Him many times until the time of His Ascension, when He goes to the Father in heaven. After this, the Power of the Holy Spirit comes down upon them at Pentecost and the Apostles begin to spread the message to the entire world for the rest of their lives.

This sermon, particularly, was given by Peter to a centurion, a Roman, and was a particularly dramatic moment in the Acts of the Apostles because it is when Peter brings the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles and the Holy Spirit is poured our, as Acts 10:45 says, even on the Gentiles. This moment, which seems to make sense to us, would have been revolutionary to the Apostles - Jesus' message, His forgiveness, the life He offers is not just for the Jews. Rather, Jesus came to bring eternal life to the entire world, and here we have heard Peter doing exactly that.

On this Easter Sunday, as in every day, the message for each of us is quite simple - the forgiveness and new life offered in Jesus Christ is offered to each and every single one of us, no matter who we are, where we are from, or where we have been. Let us rejoice and be glad today, for our Lord has truly risen, and death has been defeated. Our Lord has risen, and with Him, each of us has the chance to truly rise from the graves of sin, suffering, and death we experience and enter into the abundant new life offered to us in Jesus Christ. Alleluia! Happy Easter!

Step #3 - Oratio / Pray

"This man God raised from the dead."

Jesus, I thank you for rising from the dead and offering me new life. In what areas of my life, Lord, are you calling me to rise to new life with you?How can I let the joy of this Easter day be a part of everything I do today and throughout this Easter season?

Step #4 - Contemplatio / Contemplation

Jesus, I long to fully experience the joy of Your Resurrection today.

Allow me, my Lord, to rise to new life with you.

​Come, Holy Spirit.

For the rest of your day...

Focus on rising with the Lord, and celebration that today He is indeed Risen.